Whether it's Preston Hollow, Las Colinas or the Park Cities, one of the most frequent requests we receive is that for landscape design and plantings that can stand up to the wear tear of our four-legged friends. We love our dogs and they can pose challenges with backyard landscapes, but that doesn't mean that you can't have their unconditional love AND a beautiful backyard. With the right planning and design elements, both large and small dogs can live in harmony with your landscape.

Eliminate Muddy Areas

Establish grass in all sunny areas that are not beds. While establishing grass, do this at a convenient time to be able to take extra walks or utilize the front yard. Keep the dogs from running on newly established lawns for the first 2-3 weeks. As a large dog owner, we realize this can be a challenge so you'll need to supervise to minimize the running and turning which can damage newly planted sod.

Splendid Gardens Laying New Sod

Provide a Path Along the Fence Line or Well-Traveled Route

Don’t try to change their existing route, they are creatures of habit. Install flagstone, small river rock or Tejas crushed granite (click here to learn of all possible stone options) in this path to help stand up to the traffic.

Flagstone to Support a High Traffic Area

Flagstone and Tejas Stone Along a Fence Line

Address Shady Areas

Areas that have sun in the summer but deep shade in the winter will only provide part year relief from muddy paws. We help you address these spots with a permanent solution such as hardscape, the addition of a bed area or strategic placement of container pots.

Large Flagstones To Protect a Shady Area That Gets Muddy

Container Pots in Beds

Large pots in beds are a very decorative solution when you need to limit access to an area, move a dog path around or camouflage a dog prone area. This doubles as winter interest highlighting seasonal flowers through the colder months.

A Large Container Pot Blocks Access

Choose the Right Kind of Lawn Grass

St Augustine grass is your best choice to limit visibility of urine spotting, it is also part-shade friendly. Bermuda grass is the most hardy for full sun but the urine spots can be more visible. We love Zyosia grass, it is our team favorite but it will show urine spotting the most so you might want to consider it only for the front yard and utilize St Augustine in the backyard.

Zyosia Grass With Urine Spotting

Artificial Grass

Artificial grass is the ultimate dog-friendly application. Dogs take right to it. Even if used on a limited basis in side yards and shady areas, this can bring instant muddy paw relief. The added bonus is a visually green lawn all year round.

Dogs Love Artificial Grass

Splendid Gardens provides professional landscape services to Dallas and surrounding cities in North Texas. We take great pride in delivering customized services to each client. We're dog lovers ourselves, those two big white dogs in the last picture above are our own rescue pups Addison and Barkly so dog-friendly landscaping is a topic that's near and dear to our hearts.

Our experienced teams provide a variety of services including landscape design, installation, scheduled maintenance services, custom flagstone and redesign of existing landscapes. We actively give back to the community by volunteering our services to local projects in need.

Contact us to help you design a beautiful dog-friendly backyard!

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